Panak strikes!

Fooblitzky

Steve Panak

Fooblitzky
by Michael Berlyn
INFOCOM, INC.
125 CambridgePark Drive
Cambridge, MA 02140
48K Disk $39.95

This new program proves that success belongs to those who take chances. Let me explain.

Most companies, when they have a good thing going (are selling at least enough to nudge themselves into the black), tend to become complacent. They stick to their tried and true formula. They may change some minor variable ever so slightly, but are otherwise stagnant.

For the past few years, Infocom has been following this pattern, issuing a chain of top-notch text adventures consistently among the best I review in these pages. That's stagnation I can live with.

But the geniuses who have given us such classics as Zork and Deadline have apparently, and surprisingly, diverged from their usual course. They've released a product which might very well be the most talked-about game this year... Fooblitzky.

Having skillfully accomplished the remarkable task of merging computer and novel, they've taken on a possibly greater challenge -- fusing board game and computer. Gaming may never be the same.

A strange mixture of games like Clue, Mastermind, and Trouble (as well as a number whose names I no longer remember), Fooblitzky will supply board game fans with hours of pleasure. The concept is simple: up to four players each secretly select one of eighteen items; the object of the game is to deduce the four selected items (if less than four play, the computer selects the remainder).

The items are available in and around various shops in the town of Fooblitzky. You move about the board (displayed on a highly detailed screen), using up your available moves and foobles (money).

You might have to buy something, or work to earn more cash. You might call a store to see what it has, or bump into another player and pick up his dropped items. Since you can only carry four items at once, you might want to hide something in your locker, or sell it, or give it away. And, if you're not careful in the crosswalk, you'll land in the hospital. I could go on and on.

All moves and choices are made with one joystick, which must be passed around. After setting up the game and choosing the items, play progresses just as in any other board game. Each player, in turn, spins the wheel of fortune, moves a few squares, then performs some action.

The game is easy to learn and even easier to play. But, like all Infocom games, it requires you to think. When you believe you've deduced the four items, take them to a checkpoint. If you're right, you're the winner. And if not, you'll be told how many are right (although not which are right). Using these clues, as well as careful observations of the other players' actions, you'll soon have the four items.

The package continues Infocom's tradition of superb documentation and game paraphernalia. The game is completely explained in a rules and regulations manual, supplemented by a "bare essentials" pamphlet, which lets you get right into the game. Both are well written and easy to understand.

To support the game, there are large plastic-coated worksheets and magic markers, to keep track of everything which occurs along your journeys. The worksheets are continuously used and erased, and exist perpetually.

This being Infocom's first foray into graphics, you might very well ask how they were. I might very well answer, "Great." The various caricatures were whimsically drawn and entertaining. The board is nicely detailed and scrolls smoothly among the four gaming quadrants. The only problem lies in the disk loads necessary to display them, which slowed play somewhat.

Another problem was in design. Often, when you're stuck in the hospital, or working in the restaurant -- with no desire to spin -- you must spin anyway. This, too, slows play down. But we're nitpicking. Your biggest problem will be getting three other players to join you in the quest.

Fooblitzky does for board games what the other Infocom works did for books -- revolutionize them...computerize them... and bring them into the 21st century -- and beyond. Like all great games, it's a merger of chance, luck and skill, which will perplex and entertain you for hours. If you like board games, and the comradery that accompanies them, then Fooblitzky is for you.

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